


just one chance

by towokuwusatsuwu



Category: HiGH&LOW: the Story of S.W.O.R.D. (TV)
Genre: Awkwardness, Established Relationship, First Meetings, Introspection, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-12
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-07-11 10:29:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15970475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/towokuwusatsuwu/pseuds/towokuwusatsuwu
Summary: noboru will always have the knowledge he picked up as a member of iemura group-- the coldness, the sharpness, and the lack of trust for those who would call themselves "allies" in a time like this.





	just one chance

Being a member of Sannoh Rengokai meant accepting Cobra’s kindness would extend to people who had done nothing to earn it.

Yamato still has the scar on the back of his hand and Noboru spent weeks shaking off the bruises and the ache in his bones, but neither of them have been able to convince Cobra that working with Jesse’s Prison Gang is only going to get all of them in trouble. Though Noboru personally knows that Cobra adores Jesse— the softness in his eyes when Jesse calls him on the phone or when Jesse stops by, swearing he was in the area even though none of them have ever seen Jesse casually in Sannoh— he and Yamato have their reservations.

It doesn’t help that Cobra must have told the others they could show up whenever they wanted because when Noboru opens their front door and three far too familiar faces spill into their living room, Noboru nearly jumps three feet in the air. Yamato launches himself off of the couch, the magazine in his hands skittering across the floor to land in front of the TV. If Cobra was here, this would be less startling, but Cobra left to spend the night with the Mighty Warriors.

The thought makes Noboru’s jaw twitch. He  _ knows _ he needs to let it go, knows that Mighty simply accept jobs from people with enough money to pay them for their services, but it’s hard not to take things personally when they kept clashing. Hard not to take things personally when one of their members was a Kuryu boss, the very group that chewed Noboru up and spit him out when he was no longer useful to them. Things like that, they stick with you.

It would also help if the three men who straighten up were not the first three members of Prison Gang they ever met. Two of them made one of the streets of Sannoh into their own private arena and for all intents and purposes, Sannoh can hardly forgive such things. This is their town, and maybe Noboru is still bitter about the way the man in front of him, decked out in floral print and more than enough hair gel to cover the needs of ten men, launched himself at Yamato with a knife when they were trying to take care of their city.

Most people thought Noboru was the sweetest of the three of them, but he credits Yamato with such a thing, or maybe Cobra and his incessant need to shield everyone he cares about. Noboru can put on a pretty smile when he needs to, and for the most part these days he’s happy, but he’s still filled with a bitter poison that seeps through his veins thicker and stickier when he’s confronted with someone who hurt him or someone he loved.

“Sorry to drop in like this without warning but we were just in the area.” Floral Print waggles his eyebrows like he knows Jesse’s favorite lie by heart, and knows just how much of a lie it is.

“Cobra’s not here.” Noboru’s voice comes out colder than he intends it and out of the corner of his eye, he can see Yamato twitch in response. “If you’re here to see him, you might as well go back home. To my understanding, he’s with one of your people tonight.”

Floral Print stares at him for just a moment, then smirks. “You’re the former yakuza.”

That he knows this makes Noboru’s hands curl into fists, and he doubts Cobra would chastise him too harshly if he slipped and threw a punch right now. “I am. Take that as a warning.”

“Ryu-san told us to watch out for you because Nikaido wouldn’t have chosen someone who didn’t fit in with the rest.” Floral Print grins and Noboru’s arm trembles with the desire to just land a punch right on that self-satisfied expression. “Noboru. They said that was your name.”

It occurs to Noboru, in the back of his head, that he should be worried Nikaido still thinks about him enough to mention him to someone else, but right now all he feels is white hot fury that threatens to drown out his common sense. “You should all leave. Cobra isn’t here.”

“We aren’t here to see Cobra, baby face.” The comment is incorrigible and comes from the man whose neck Floral Print has his arm looped around. “It’s not any fun if we let the bosses do all the work. We’re all trying to get to know each other so there’s a real synergy.”

Yamato makes a noise of confusion. “Since when? I know Murayama and Smokey have been talking to some of you, but that didn’t include the rest of us. Cobra would have—”

“This was Jesse’s idea,” Floral Print interjects. “Said we all need to get along.”

“That’s not going to happen. We don’t want you here if Cobra isn’t here, and really, it should be Jesse floating this idea by us instead of making decisions for us.” Noboru is more annoyed than he wants to let on, but the tone of his voice has Floral Print raising his eyebrows, lips pressed into an unimpressed line. “So, you can leave now. Unfortunate you wasted your time coming here, but we don’t appreciate unannounced visitors at this time of night.”

Floral Print whistles. “You must’ve been really good at the yakuza game, huh?”

“They’re idiots.” The words come from the tall man hovering behind the other two, dressed in leather and fishnet and giving Noboru bad feelings from the scowl settled on his face. “Jesse told them not to do this, and they did anyway. I came along to make sure they behave.”

Noboru lifts his chin. “Then maybe it should be you that I’m addressing. Take them and leave if you don’t want this to ruin all the hard work our leaders are trying to do for us.”

“You’re not much fun— I know you!” Floral Print shoves Noboru out of the way, angling to get closer to Yamato, who takes about four steps back. “Your hair’s not slicked back or I would—”

Before he can get past Noboru, Noboru’s hand whips out, lightning fast, and closes in a vice around Floral Print’s upper arm, fingers biting into his skin through the thin layer. “You don’t go near him without permission, do you understand me? This is our home.”

“Brown!” The big man moves faster than Noboru would have thought possible, catching Floral Print— Brown— in a headlock and dragging him back, ignoring the way he squeaks and squirms for freedom. “Christ, I’m sorry. They really  _ are _ idiots.”

“We’re all getting off on the wrong foot here,” Yamato says quickly, putting a hand on Noboru’s shoulder, squeezing— a warning. “I’m Yamato, this is Noboru. You are?”

“Nakamon. This spastic little flirt is Brown, and his partner in crime is Akune. I swear, when they aren’t around each other, they’re better.” Nakamon keeps Brown smoothly half-choked while he bows his head to Yamato. “Jesse wanted us to come talk to the two of you and to apologize for fighting in your city. Brown is meant to apologize for the scar on your hand.”

Brown stops fighting long enough to pout. “But we were  _ fighting _ and I wanted to win.”

“Brown!” Nakamon snaps.

Within seconds, Brown deflates. “Sorry for cheating,” he mutters, scuffing his shoe on the floor before giving Yamato the biggest puppy eyes Noboru has ever seen. “Cobra said you’re not the type who holds grudges, though, so you’re probably not mad at me.”

Yamato scoffs. “I won. What do I have to be mad at you about? Nakamon, you can let him go.”

The moment Nakamon releases Brown from the chokehold, Brown launches himself at Yamato, who catches him and holds him at arm’s length, looking him up and down before letting him go. Within seconds, Brown wraps both of his arms and his legs around Yamato like an octopus, making a small content noise when Yamato just sighs and pats the top of his head. Rolling his eyes, Noboru moves behind their guests to lock up the apartment, writing up a scathing text message to send Cobra before he turns in for the night. He shouldn’t have told anyone  _ anything. _

“Noboru,” Yamato says, the tone of his voice pointed and yet soft. “It’s fine, isn’t it? This visit.”

“Is it?” Noboru asks him, leaning his back against the door, arms folded over his chest.

He hates that Iemura Group left such a permanent impression upon him, that there are edges of his personality that will never soften or smooth out. But seeing the man who scarred Yamato wrapped around him like a needy boyfriend pisses Noboru off, and he knows Yamato and Cobra never hold grudges and will always find ways to make friends of their enemies, but he isn’t like that and that was probably one of the reasons Nikaido reached out to him. Surviving in a yakuza family means knowing not to let things go. Failure has to be punished, after all.

Iemura would have been proud of him, finally. That makes Noboru all the more pissed off.

“Ryu-san’s going to like you a lot,” Brown says, head resting comfortably on Yamato’s shoulder.

“We’ve upset you,” Nakamon says, his voice lower now, quieter. “I apologize for that.”

“This doesn’t sit right with me,” Noboru says, and he ignores the way Yamato frowns at him, clearly disappointed, but he didn’t come back to Sannoh to pretend everything was fine. He isn’t the same man who grew up beside Cobra and Yamato anymore; things have changed him and changed  _ for _ him. “You showed up in our territory, hurt people, and then proceeded to attack us during the Doubt fight. Hired job or not, it’s become very difficult for me to accept that you and yours have nothing against us when all we do is fight each other.”

“We aren’t doing that anymore, though,” Akune says with far more confidence than he has any right to feel. “That’s what all of this is about, right? Why Cobra and Jesse are friends now—”

Noboru scoffs at the word. “Allies for the cause of making sure Kuryu doesn’t destroy all of us? Cobra has more faith in you than the rest of us do. How do we know that Kuryu won’t just offer you the money to destroy us from the inside out? They already might have and we’re just not smart enough to have put those pieces together yet.”

Brown hums thoughtfully. “Guess it’s too much to ask for you to trust us on this, huh?”

“Trust,” Noboru says quietly, “is not something any of you have earned from me.”

Yamato’s eyes are pleading. “Noboru, you’ve talked to Jesse. You’ve seen him working with Cobra, so… So you know, we can trust them now. Because they follow Jesse, and—”

“And we have a reason to trust Jesse? I love Cobra, but he’d let his enemies get close enough to plant a knife in his back if he thought it was for a greater good.” The thought makes Noboru vaguely ill, because as much as he loves Cobra, Cobra has never learned.  _ Never. _

Akune shakes his head. “Nah, you don’t know Jesse all that well. He’s not just doing this for himself or for us, he’s doing it for Ice— But I guess you don’t trust Ice either.”

“Should I? This alliance hasn’t done anything for us. It just keeps you and yours safe should Kuryu decide you’re expendable after all. Which, to them, you are.” Noboru knows better than anyone just how quickly a person can be tossed aside the moment they come a liability.

“Well, see, that’s why we’re here. To make it beneficial for all parties involved. Because we owe you apologies for the way we acted.” Brown lets go of Yamato to come to stand in front of Noboru, and Noboru quietly sizes up how easy it would be to take this man out especially with Yamato behind him. “I’m sorry for trashing your streets and your people. Sannoh seems like a bunch of good people. It’s what got Jesse interested in your man in the first place.”

“I don’t care what Jesse’s interested in,” Noboru says coldly. “I care about Sannoh. That’s it.”

Nakamon lifts his chin. “That’s a good mindset to have. That’s one we can understand.”

“Man, you think we’re in this for, like, the goody two shoes reasons Cobra is? Nah, never.” Brown grins, throws his arms wide— and almost hits Akune, who barely dodges getting smacked across the face by the grand movement. “We care about each other, that’s it. We’re a family. We were all we had in prison. Heard you made it to prison yourself, actually.”

Noboru grits his teeth; how much has Cobra told these people? “I’m unafraid to go back.”

“That’s such a good attitude to have,” Akune says, and he sounds like he means it.

Brown bounces a little on the balls of his feet. “See, that’s the kind of shit I’m talking about. If we’re dangerous to you, you’d kick our asses to protect your own. You almost ripped my arm out of socket ‘cause I tried to get to your man a minute ago. I can really admire that.”

“Flattery won’t actually get you anywhere,” Noboru informs him.

Brown scoffs and shakes his head, and when he takes a step forward, Noboru raises an eyebrow. “I’m not trying to flatter you! Really, man, I’m serious. You’re so great. You get it. See, to us, it’s all about our family. We were all we had in prison, and even with Mighty now, it’s just our two little groups. That’s what Cobra used to appeal to Ice and Jesse, that protecting us was the most important thing, and we weren’t safe from Kuryu.”

“Sannoh Rengokai is still the most important thing to Cobra,” Nakamon says, voice soft. “We came to see you to lay our cards on the table because Cobra cares about you two, specifically, the most. We want to make things work because we may very well end up fighting side by side one day, and you care more about people you fight with if they mean something to you.”

The concept is not lost on Noboru; yakuza families are born from outsiders, after all, and the family aspect itself is meant to provide unity among the group, to create something to come home to, to make it mean something if you fail or betray the people you care about. It appealed to him in a way, because it reminded him of Mugen, of Cobra and Yamato and everything that he was letting go by leaving them behind. Too eager to have something in his life, he walked right into Nikaido’s waiting arms, and it nearly ended with his death.

But Noboru survived, and he would never let someone make a fool out of him again.

“I’m not convinced that people like you, who are so willing to make victims out of anyone you come across for the money, can care about other people,” he says.

To his surprise, Brown flinches back at the words. “You are  _ ice  _ cold, Ryu-san really is going to adore you. But get this, pretty boy, there’s no money involved now. Cobra’s not paying us.”

“Noboru,” Yamato says sweetly, carefully, “why don’t we just hear them out? It’s worth a shot. If this all means so much to Cobra, we can try to help. He shouldn’t have to feel like he’s in this alone trying to fix it all by himself. It’s not really fair to him.”

Cobra dragging other people into situations like this is exactly why DTC left Sannoh in the first place, and Noboru could easily remind Yamato of that because he understood Dan more than he wanted to admit. Instead, he sighs and tips his head back, banging it against the door and not caring about the slight twinge of pain. Letting snakes into the house meant they were asking for betrayal to come knocking, but Noboru knows he isn’t going to win this argument.

_ They let you back in, _ he reminds himself, staring up at the ceiling, at the uneven plaster— they really do need to fix it.  _ You almost shot Yamato and you would have dragged your home to drop at Nikaido-san’s feet like a dog. Maybe, just this once, you should hear these people out. _

“You only get one chance,” Noboru finally says. “Because you wouldn’t deserve a second one.”

Brown is on him in a second, slamming Noboru’s entire body backward into the door in his haste to clamber up Noboru’s body. “That’s all we’re asking for is one chance! Thanks, man.”

A single night’s worth of conversation is hardly going to create the foundation needed for any true alliance to take root and grow stronger, but Noboru is willing to let them at least  _ start _ tonight. Brown refuses to let go of him and Noboru gives up trying to get him to go away, dropping down on the couch with Brown still clinging to him like a spider monkey, breath warm and damp against the side of Noboru’s neck. It could be worse, he supposes.

He  _ almost _ balks when Yamato mentions they can stay the night if they need to, the hour growing late far faster than any of them notice, but Brown barely lifts his head from Noboru’s shoulder and it takes Noboru a solid minute to realize Brown has almost fallen asleep on top of him. Sighing, he just pats the back of Brown’s head and lets him stay where he is. The strength in his limbs runs thin enough that Noboru could easily shrug him off now, but for dead weight he’s at least warm, so Noboru can let it go. Just this once.

He has no intentions of letting tonight go, though. Cobra is going to owe him for this.


End file.
